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“Bwuh?”

I could only assume that I also had a shocked look on my face. All given, this man had to be Aichou Mitsuo. To think the very leader of the troupe would act as the mascot… Hang on, wasn’t that pretty common?

“Ah, uhm, if you aren’t who I thought you were, please forget what I said.”
“N-No, you got it right.”

The five others with me also looked utterly shocked, likely a combination of not knowing what was going on and someone who knew about Anazumu suddenly appearing. With all that going on, Kanata probably was about to freeze up.

“I see… I see! To think we’d meet again so soon… the gods really might still be with us. My apologies, we should continue this talk later. Hang on, where was it again?”

Mr. Mitsuo searched his pockets for a notebook and a ball-point-pen, quickly scribbling something onto a page and handing that to me.

“Please come to that location by yourself in 15 minutes.”
“Understood.”

After seeing me agree, he returned to the other guests with a somewhat relieved look on his face.

Now, I’ll have to explain things to everyone.

“Bro, what was that just now…?”
“Hm? The leader of this circus troupe… in other words, the person playing Long-Heart, has been to Anazumu.”
“What!?”

Four of them heard about this for the first time, so their shock was understandable. Mika also seemed to have forgotten about it.

“Eh… when did you ever… I don’t remember anyone other than us coming to Anazumu…”
“You have met him, Mika.”
“I have?”
“Yup.”

Well, she didn’t have any contact with Mr. Mitsuo afterwards and we never brought him up in conversation, plus in the first place we had to bring all the dead back to life with Amritas, so it was only natural she forgot about him.

“He was one of the demons who attacked the Mephilad Kingdom-”
“Oh~!!? Don’t tell me he was this Mephisto-Something guy?”
“Exactly.”

It looked like she did remember him. That would make this quick.

“That man was apparently trying to return to Earth, so he conspired with the demons, but he was captured by the kingdom and sentenced to death.”
“I remember now. To think that was him.”
“Yep. I snuck into the castle and brought back a part of his body, which I used to revive him.”

Afterwards, I told the other four, who didn’t know the rest of the story, what kind of man Mr. Mitsuo was and what he had done.

“Was it really fine to let this guy return to Earth? Won’t he start committin’ crimes?”
“I put emphasis on that when I sent him back and even considered brainwashing him to some extent¹…”
“Brainwashin’…”

At that, Shuu flinched back slightly. Sure, it was a cruel option, but in the end, it was the safest one.

“Still… to think someone from Earth arrived in Anazumu more than a hundred years before you, Bro. But this Mr. Mitsuo did. And now he’s running the circus… It sounds like the time he arrived after being sent back was random.”

Indeed, the man had lived for more than a hundred years, but no matter how you sliced it, he looked like someone from our parents’ generation. It was truly strange… maybe Kanata was right with his assumption that he arrived at a random time when I sent him back.

“I-In that case, weren’t we super lucky that we arrived at a point in time when you were also there, Big Sis, Ayu-nii??”
“Woof, if Shuu had arrived at a different point in time… I would’ve ended up violated by countless men…”

Sakura nuzzled up to Mika, while Rir hugged Shuu with an anxious expression. The two huggees let it happen without protest.

“Even assuming it was fate that brought you and Shuu together, Rir, it feels like us reuniting with Bro and Mika-nee was inevitable.”
“You’re right, Kanata. I feel the same,” Mika agreed.

My watch showed that Mr. Mitsuo’s 15 minutes had passed. His show as Long-Heart was already over.

“I’ll be going, then.”
“…Should we come with you?” Mika asked worriedly.
“No, I’m the only one who has a deeper connection to him, well, and Mika to some extent, so you should stay here. We can talk to him as a group at a later time. For now, just I will go.”
“That’s probably true. Alright.”

For some reason, Mika seemed worried when she looked at me, but it didn’t feel like there was any need for concern.

I parted with the five of them and followed the concise map Mr. Mitsuo had drawn. Shortly later, I could see what looked like an office outside the circus tent. As expected, there were tons of staff members around. A handsome man – either a foreigner or someone of mixed race – noticed my arrival and closed in on me.

“What’s wrong, missy? Did you get lost?”

As usually, people assumed I was a girl. Well, that didn’t matter at the moment.

“No, uhm… I was invited here by Mr. Aichou Mitsuo.”
“Mitsuo²? The boss invited you here!? Right, now that you mention it, when he came back from entertaining the people in line earlier, he did say ‘I’m currently waiting for an important guest, so when she arrives, please let her through. You’ll know her when you see her, she’s ridiculously pretty.’ I guess that’s you! Alright, come with me.”

The man would apparently show me in.

1. The original is closer to “I did some brainwashing, so I think it’ll be fine”. The problem is that for all we know, he didn’t, so I translated it this way. Does threatening someone count as brainwashing in Japan?
2. The man uses Katakana for some words, likely to indicate that he’s a foreigner with an accent (he uses ジャポン at one point, so it’s possible he’s from a French-speaking country). This is also the first time it is confirmed that 光夫 is read as “Mitsuo”.

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